Luxor's shopping splits three ways: the theatrical bargaining of the Old Market souk, quiet fixed-price shops selling Egyptian cotton and archive photographs, and the West Bank workshops where alabaster is still cut by hand outside the door.
Luxor's main covered bazaar runs roughly 800m north from behind Luxor Temple: galabeyas, scarves, spices, copper trays and alabaster. Open about 09:00–22:00 daily; the eastern lanes near the mosque stay resolutely local.
The street linking the railway station to the Nile is where Luxor itself shops: fabric bolts, tailors, shoe stalls and household goods sold at fixed local prices. Busiest mid-morning; many shops close 14:00–17:00 for the heat.
A small shop selling Egyptian cotton and linen woven on hand looms in Upper Egyptian villages: scarves, cushion covers, table runners and flat-weave rugs. Prices are fixed and tagged, and each piece is labelled with its weaving village.
Trading in Luxor since 1909, the Corniche branch stacks Egyptology titles, archaeological maps, temple plans and postcards alongside English-language paperbacks. Generally open 09:00–21:00 and air-conditioned enough to browse slowly.
Founded in 1907, Gaddis sells archive prints of Attiya Gaddis's 1920s Luxor photographs alongside cotton shirts, silver scarabs and jewellery. Fixed-price and air-conditioned, in the shopping arcade beside the Winter Palace hotel.
A quiet room near Sofra restaurant gathering work from Egyptian craft cooperatives: Akhmim weaving, Fayoum pottery, Siwa embroidery, recycled Muski glass and palm basketry. Prices are marked, receipts issued and no bargaining expected.
A mudbrick gallery and cafe on the road toward the Ramesseum, stocking Bedouin silver, Nubian basketry, block-printed textiles and paintings by artists living around Gurna. Rooftop tea between browsing; open daily until sunset.
The narrow lane beside the Al Sahaby Lane hotel, one block back from the main souk, holds slower shops for silver cartouches cut to order, hand-tooled leather and inlaid mother-of-pearl boxes. Owners tend to open properly in the evening.
The West Bank road between the Colossi of Memnon and Medinet Habu is lined with family workshops where alabaster vases, lamps and canopic jars are cut and polished by hand in the yard. Watch the carving before you buy anything.
The West Bank's weekly farmers' market: donkeys and livestock, sugarcane, palm-frond baskets, unglazed clay water jars and enamel kitchenware. It runs from dawn to early afternoon each Tuesday and is almost entirely a local trading day.
The run of shops facing Karnak's entrance sells papyrus, basalt statuettes, scarves and perfume oils to arriving coaches, so opening prices are inflated and fall fast. The papyrus institutes will demonstrate pith-cutting and pressing.
The stalls strung along the Corniche between Luxor Museum and the Mummification Museum sell wood-inlay boxes, cotton galabeyas, brass lamps and hand-painted papyrus, with the Nile at your back and no coach-park pressure.